Blame Quote by Donald A. Norman
““The idea that a person is at fault when something goes wrong is deeply entrenched in society. That’s why we blame others and even ourselves. Unfortunately, the idea that a person is at fault is imbedded in the legal system. When major accidents occur, official courts of inquiry are set up to assess the blame. More and more often the blame is attributed to “human error.” The person involved can be fined, punished, or fired. Maybe training procedures are revised. The law rests comfortably. But in my experience, human error usually is a result of poor design: it should be called system error. Humans err continually; it is an intrinsic part of our nature. System design should take this into account. Pinning the blame on the person may be a comfortable way to proceed, but why was the system ever designed so that a single act by a single person could cause calamity? Worse, blaming the person without fixing the root, underlying cause does not fix the problem: the same error is likely to be repeated by someone else.””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Design of Everyday Things, 2013
Blaming individuals for failures overlooks systemic flaws; design should anticipate human error and mitigate it.
In simple terms: People are blamed, but systems cause errors.
Key Takeaway
Design for safety, not blame.
Themes
responsibility
design
human error
systems
accountability
Mood
critical
reflective
Type
analytical
philosophical
When to use this quote
- workplace safety
- software development
- product design
- healthcare
- transportation
Key Concepts
human-centered design
error mitigation
systems thinking
Questions to Reflect On
- How can organizations shift from blame to redesign?
- What incentives encourage systemic fixes?
A Different Perspective
Systemic change is costly and may face resistance from entrenched interests.
![“Hypertext makes a virtue out of lack of organization, allowing ideas and thoughts to be juxtaposed at will. [...] The advent of hypertext is apt to make writing much more difficult, not easier. Good writing, that is.” quote by Donald A. Norman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/662/donald-a-norman-6862_advent_hypertext-makes-a-virtue-out-of-lack-of_51804.jpg)
